The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 19

A man in a suit with a gentle impression, the civil servant Jeongbin, who had been scanning his phone, sat with his legs crossed on the wooden veranda, watching the dirt-floor protest show put on by the world’s only S-rank craftsman.

“Give me that magic stone!”

“Hmm— Hong Yeseong, you didn’t see anything.”

“Ahhh, someone please get me that thing.”

Flailing his limbs on the ground, he looked exactly like a child throwing a tantrum, sprawled out in the toy aisle of a mart. When Jeongbin flicked his hand, an Awakened Management Agency employee standing near the hanok entrance approached and bowed. Jeongbin whispered quietly.

“Since when did the Artisan Village have such good wifi? Didn’t you cut the wifi when Hong Yeseong checked in this time?”

“Of course we cut it, but… Lee Sayoung connected all the communication lines and wifi, and in return, he was put in charge of crafting gloves.”

“Ah, that human is really no help. As soon as this job is done, cut it again here.”

“Yes, understood. And I believe this information probably came through the ranker chat. Talk of the magic stone spread across every channel.”

“Everyone please cooperate, seriously. Anyway, there’s no professional ethics.”

Even as Jeongbin clicked his tongue and let out a short sigh, Hong Yeseong repeated the same words like a broken recorder.

“I want to go to Seoul. Give me the magic stone.”

“My goodness, you were the one who asked to be locked up in Jirisan in the first place. Sir, you can’t leave here until all the weapons are made.”

This man, who rolled around on the dirt floor even while wearing white clothes. He was none other than South Korea’s rank 7 and the one and only S-rank craftsman, the ‘Eccentric,’ Hong Yeseong.

Six years ago, a gate opened in the middle of the Korea National University of Arts campus. It was evening, so there weren’t many students on campus, but the problem was the fourth-year fine arts students who had become studio ghosts preparing their graduation works. They stood at a crossroads and agonized.

Graduation work? Or your life?

Most naturally chose their lives. To die like this was too young and too unfair for them. To die while only working on a graduation piece was too much! The gate was a natural disaster, so surely the professors would take extenuating circumstances into account! The students, holding hammers and saws, trembled and hid in the most secluded corners they could find.

But there was exactly one person. Fourth-year ceramics major, Hong Yeseong.

He sat in his studio as if nothing had happened, whether the gate opened or not. Even when monsters that crawled out of the gate climbed the building’s exterior wall, broke the window, and entered the studio, Hong Yeseong was at that spot molding pottery.

And he awakened. As an S-rank craftsman.

The government first classified the episode of his awakening. The moment they announced honestly that a college student working on his graduation piece had ignored the gate and monsters, molded pottery, and awakened as an S-rank craftsman, it was obvious that aspiring Hong Yeseongs who wouldn’t evacuate even if a gate burst open and would just tough it out would increase. It was a story that absolutely had to be sealed for the sake of the people’s safety.

In any case, Hong Yeseong, the greatest output of the ceramics department and the person responsible for raising the entrance exam standards of ceramics departments nationwide, was the first S-rank craftsman to appear in the world after the Day of the Rift. Furthermore, he even possessed a truly tremendous trait.

[Trait: Deadline Finisher (L)

As the deadline approaches, work efficiency increases and speed quickens.

(If crafting is completed while the skill is activated, quality increases by an additional 50%)]

Government and Awakened Management Agency officials gave a standing ovation the moment they saw Hong Yeseong’s Awakened data. To think that you, a rare and precious S-rank craftsman, also possess an L-rank trait. He was a talent who would raise South Korea’s Hunter competitiveness by a wide margin in the future.

However, the moment Hong Yeseong’s existence and trait were widely reported and became known to the world, headhunters from overseas targeted him and poured into Korea. Of course—Mr. Hong is the world’s only S-rank craftsman! As the number of countries and organizations that wanted him grew, the South Korean government began to grow increasingly anxious. They were desperate to somehow make Hong Yeseong settle down in Korea.

The citizens also gathered their hearts and earnestly prayed. Extreme opinions circulating on the internet—take away Hong Yeseong’s passport, tear up his passport and issue an exit ban, etc.—were nothing special, and the mass media ceaselessly discussed the value he could create. It was on an otherwise ordinary day.

Hong Yeseong, driven neurotic by headhunters knocking on his hotel door every night, shouted “F**k you, I’m Korean!” and requested protection from the South Korean government. And along with the nation’s protection, he requested one more thing.

“When my work deadline closes in, no matter what I say, please lock me up in a mountain somewhere with good water, good air, good energy, and no contact with the outside.”

It was ‘confinement.’

The government, which had wanted to lock him up somewhere secret so he couldn’t leave the country, fearing he might suddenly leave for another country, nearly died of joy at his request.

“Huh? Oh my, that’s so good, no, ahem. What’s the reason?”

“Well, you see, I actually have one more trait?”

They say a perfect human being doesn’t exist in this world. Hong Yeseong also had one fatal ability limiter.

[Trait: Grub (L)

You want to put everything off. (A lot.)]

The system, instead of granting an S-rank craftsman, performed its own balance patch through traits. A trait that makes you put things off and off, barely producing one thing as the deadline approaches. A crazy human who controls outstanding talent through traits. An incarnation of cramming who only catches fire when the deadline is right around the corner.

But so what! The South Korean government designated several mountains with good energy across the country for their lazy eccentric and kindly locked Hong Yeseong up there when the time came. The time before last was Seoraksan, last time was Gyeryongsan, and this time it was the Jirisan Artisan Village’s turn.

Jeongbin propped his chin and let out a deep sigh. Staring blankly at the white lump lying on the ground, he spoke.

“I even canceled my prior appointment with Lee Sayoung today to come catch Hong Yeseong. You know that, right?”

“Excuse me, Mr. Civil Servant.”

Instead of answering, Hong Yeseong called Jeongbin. His tone was a bit calmer than the whining voice from before.

“If I make a weapon with that magic stone, I can produce at least S+ rank. Just looking at the photo, I get a clear feel for it.”

“Oh?”

Jeongbin raised his eyebrows slightly as if a little surprised. The highest rank of equipment Hong Yeseong had made so far was S-rank. He had said that both materials and skill needed to be in place to craft higher-rank items. So the mention of an S+ rank weapon couldn’t help but tempt Jeongbin.

As for the unidentified magic stone seller, Jeongbin had also received a report while flying to Jirisan by helicopter. To be precise, it was about a crazy person who had posted a dazzling magic stone on Tomato Market.

Not posting such a precious thing on the Hunter Market meant there was definitely something fishy about the listing, but seeing Hong Yeseong, the possessor of outstanding appraisal eyes, reacting like that, its quality was certain. And although only photos had come out, in Jeongbin’s eyes too, the magic stone looked quite good. It was also a type that had never been distributed in the country even once.

But where did something like that suddenly pop out from?

Had he extorted it from someone? Or smuggling from overseas? While forming various hypotheses, something flashed through Jeongbin’s mind like a lightning bolt. Not long ago, the reason Lee Sayoung had barged into the Awakened Management Agency and turned the Awakened database upside down. Had he said a skilled unregistered person was wandering around?

Jeongbin shot up from his seat and crouched down next to Hong Yeseong, who was flopping around like a freshly caught fish on the ground.

“Hong Yeseong.”

“Ahhh, give me the magic stone. Bring the magic stone and then we’ll talk.”

The slightly clearer look in his eyes from before was gone. Hong Yeseong, having returned to a mental age of a five-year-old tantrum-thrower, was gently coaxed by Jeongbin.

“First, listen. That magic stone, it’s a really good one, right?”

“Of course. Just looking at it, it’s top-grade without any impurities or monster energy mixed in. Ah, give me the magic stone!”

“The people who can obtain a magic stone like that are limited. Right?”

“At the very least, a ranker in the top 100.”

“Top rankers don’t usually trade like this, leaving traces everywhere like a newbie, do they? Right?”

“Of course. There’s the black market and the Hunter Market, so why would they post on Tomato Market. Are they stupid.”

Hong Yeseong, who had spoken bluntly, began to thrash again.

“Ah, even thinking about it again, it’s ridiculous…. I’m in Jirisan so I can’t see the Seoul Tomato Market! Ack! Lock me up in Bukhansan next time!”

“Yes, yes, I’ll tell the Director that your next place of exile is Bukhansan. And,”

Jeongbin rose from his seat and dusted off his knees.

“That magic stone, I’ll try finding it.”

“…Really?”

At Jeongbin’s refreshing remark, Hong Yeseong snapped his head up. Covered in dirt all over his white fleece, with clear madness overflowing from his eyes, his appearance was exactly like a Pomeranian that had gone for a walk and done about 30 drifts in a dirt field.

“Yes.”

Jeongbin wore a 100% credibility smile, the kind commonly seen in public service advertisements. A strange confidence could even be felt in his voice.

“I have a feeling I’ll discover a gold mine while digging for the magic stone.”